“Gender” of Baltimore’s Next Trash Wheel to be Revealed Next Month

Is Baltimore’s Mr. Trash Wheel about to get a girlfriend? Do trash wheels even have a gender?

The answers will be known next month when the Waterfront Partnership holds a “gender reveal party” to announce the gender of a second trash wheel planned for Baltimore’s harbor, this time in Canton.

The partnership and its Healthy Harbor Initiative have set September 22 as the date for the party, which will also serve as a fundraiser for roughly $12,000 still needed to build the trash collector, a companion to Mr. Trash Wheel in the lower Jones Falls.

“People have been speculating about the gender of the new trash wheel since we announced that we started fundraising for it,” said Adam Lindquist, director of the Healthy Harbor Initiative. “With this event, we hope to continue to bring awareness to the incredible technology that is cleaning up our harbor and also to raise enough funds to get the new Trash Wheel installed by the end of this year.”

Located next to the Pier 6 Concert Tent, Mr. Trash Wheel is a trash collection device that collects debris floating down the Lower Johns Falls before it reaches the Inner Harbor.

So far, more than $538,000 out of $550,000 has been raised for the proposed second Trash Wheel, which will be located at the Harris Creek outfall near Harris Creek Park in Canton. The stream transports over 5,000 lbs. of trash into the harbor every month. A new Trash Wheel has been designed to use solar energy and hydropower to capture that trash and keep it out of the harbor and Chesapeake Bay.

The event will be held at the Marriott Waterfront Hotel, 700 Aliceanna Street, from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.on September 22. Each person who buys a ticket and attends will have a chance to vote on the gender of the Canton Trash Wheel. The gender will be revealed by the end of the event.

Ticketholders will also get to enjoy an appetizer buffet and an open bar of beer and wine, courtesy of the Marriott, as well as live music and an appearance by the lead creator of both trash wheels, John Kellett of Clearwater Mills.